Mamas & Papas has completed a refinancing after a record year. The interesting part is not the money, it is the order they did things in. They fixed the route to market first, let the trading numbers prove it, and only then raised. Most brands in difficulty run that sequence backwards.

The best market research is not a spreadsheet, it is a day on the shop floor. After a day in Cambridge with the mother-and-daughter founders of maternity brand AuraLai, studying packaging and merchandising and talking to genuinely helpful store staff, here is why in-store market research is invaluable for ecommerce brands, how to do it well, and why a gap in a city's maternity, baby and children's retail could be someone's opportunity.